East defeats Floresville 12-2, moves to next round

Victoria East pitcher Kyle Craft throws a pitch against Floresville in Hallettsville.

HALLETTSVILLE - Victoria East ended District 30-4A play with two losses.

The Titans knew what a third straight loss would mean.

"I was pleased with the way we came out after the loss to Tuloso-Midway," said shortstop Jonathan Ortega. "I knew we would recover. We had pretty good practices. I know my team, and I knew we would come out strong."

The Titans struck early and often, backing starting pitcher Kyle Craft with 13 hits while running off with a 12-2 bi-district win over Floresville.

"They know the urgency of the situation, and we talked about not really worrying about the one-game deal," said East coach Wes Kolle. "We just focused on us and playing good, sound, fundamental baseball, and we did that."

The Titans improved to 22-7 and moved into the area round against the winner of Friday night's Corpus Christi Moody vs. Rio Grande City game.

East batted around twice and scored four runs on four hits in both the third and fifth innings.

Ortega started the third inning with his third home run of the season, a solo shot over the left-field fence. Ortega, Tim Gleinser - who tripled and doubled - Cole Urban, Derek Folmar and Trevor Brown each had two hits for the Titans.

"We were swinging it well today," Ortega said. "We've been off for a while, and we were kind of ready to go. We got out there and hit the ball pretty hard."

Craft didn't need much support. He settled down after a shaky second inning and limited the Tigers (16-11) to four hits and had 16 strikeouts.

"I started off slow," Craft said. "I was struggling with the fastball. The curveball was working, but I had to get used to the mound. After I got used to it, it was game over."

Craft pitched with a lead from the second inning on and retired eight the last nine batters he faced.

"We told them we've got to go out there and scratch early and really try to scratch every inning and keep the pressure on them," Kolle said. "We did a good job of that tonight. Crafty settled down and did his job on the mound, and we played good defense."